Tropheus Duboisi Spawning?

[gilly]

Hi, My Tropheus have been showing signs of breeding for a while now, earlier this week I notice that one seemed to be holding- bucal cavity enlarged etc. this carried on for a couple of days then she was back to normal.

I am presuming this is the first spawning could there be any other reason for this? There arn't any fry around that I can see.

What do tropheus do once they release do they continue to protect the fry or just leave them?

[livingart]

sometimes first time spawning is a learning curve for the fish and they may expel eggs early

next time may produce a longer hold and fry

[nemines]

yep, when i had my duboisi it took them a few times to get it right...eventually i learnt to strip them after about 13 days (temp at 26 C) and then raise the wrigglers in a large plastic container pegged to the parents' tank with an airstone, meth blue and patience (when moving the eggs/wrigglers don't let them come into contact with air, use a dip-tube or large straw to move them about, i found that worked best for me).

Hope this helps

[gilly]

Thanks for your advice both.

If I just let them get on with it and don't strip would there be any survivers.

What sort of care does the mother give after release, any at all?

Thanks

[ryanjury]

Noone can tell you if there will be any survivors it depends what fish are you in your tank, how good they are at eating other fish, what tank size you have, how much rock work you have and how lucky you are to name a few considerations I have seen tanks with dubs with babies swimming around with parents so it is possible.

The mum may release them and take them back in for a while once they are free swimming but most babies when spat just disappear and hide in the rock work or plants. I am unsure on the degree of care tropheus give as I haven't kept or bred them yet but have made a generalisation

[nemines]

your generalisation is pretty much spot on ryan

I nearly always stripped my females, so i can't be sure how good the fry are at avoiding death....

Stripping allows you do to a stock take of how many fry you have and it means that your female can take as few as 2-3 weeks to recover before spawning again. However, sometimes they do 'trickle breed' with only a few eggs which allows the females to kind of eat around the eggs so it is kinda hard to tell which to strip...When i stripped one female i thought i should check the rest, just to be sure...she had 12 wrigglers but another had 3 fully free-swimming spotty dubs in her throat! she probably would have released them eventually but i had cuckoo syno's, rainbowfish and probably a few hungry duboisi....Though, when they were breeding and the female failed to pick up an egg at the first turn, the male did pick them up and wait for her to lay another before spitting it out so she could pick it up!! not sure about how he would react to fry tho :roll:

[gilly]

I guess I will just have to wait and see I don't have much spare time at the mo to give special care raising fry.

Thanks for your advice